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[[Image:3v-farseers.jpg|thumb|the The Farseer trilogy - illustrations , spines of the first UK edition, illustrated by [[John Howe]].]]The Farseer trilogy is the first segment of the [[Realm of the Elderlings|Realm of the Elderlings novels]], and the first writings published under the pen name [[Robin Hobb]]. The story tracks the years of the [[Red Ship War]] in the [[Six Duchies]] as experienced by a young royal bastard, [[Fitz]].

The story tracks novel [[The Willful Princess and the years of Piebald Prince]] takes place chronologically before ''Assassin's Apprentice'', as does the short story [[Red Ship WarCat's Meat]] in the . The short stories [[Six DuchiesBlue Boots]] with the eyes of a young royal bastard,  and [[FitzWords Like Coins]]take place around the time of ''Assassin's Apprentice'' and ''Royal Assassin''. None of these are prerequisite reading before starting the trilogy. The trilogy also forms the first part of a storyline sometimes referred to as is followed chronologically by the [[Realm of the ElderlingsLiveship Traders trilogy]] books.

==Background==Robin on signing the contract:<poemstyle="border: 1px solid #999999; background-color: #99ccff; padding: 0.5em; font-style: italic;" >On the 13th day of July in 1993, I signed a rather nebulous contract with Bantam Books to write a trilogy. Book one had the working title Chivalry’s Chivalry's Bastard. Megan Lindholm agreed to write three books about this fellow, each about 125,000 words. The description of the trilogy that Bantam was agreeing to buy was as follows:'' ” " . . . a sophisticated fantasy trilogy incorporating the archetypes of the genre (e.g, magic, evil villains and a young hero named Fitz who is the bastard son of a prince). In Book #1, Fitz is sent on a quest to bring a princess back to the Mountain Kingdom. The plot lines for Books #2 and #3 shall be determined well in advance of the scheduled delivery date for that Book.” " ''<ref>http://suvudu.com/2010/06/25-years-of-spectra-assassins-apprentice-1995-by-robin-hobb.html Suvudu: 25 years of Spectra: Assassin's Apprentice (1995) by Robin Hobb</ref>

On the origins of the story:<poemstyle="border: 1px solid #999999; background-color: #99ccff; padding: 0.5em; font-style: italic;" >This series also had a number of years to incubate before I started writing it. It came from a question written on a scrap of paper that I kept in my top desk drawer: 'What if magic were addictive? And what if the addiction was destructive or degenerative?' From there, almost everything developed. A very common concept in fantasy is that power or magic has to be paid for in some way. So the idea that it would possibly be physically degenerative or an addiction where, very much like The Lord of the Rings, you start out wanting to use this ring to do good things for people, and gradually it takes you over, is a very old idea. For me, that was the germ that gradually grew into this whole thing.<ref>http://www.locusmag.com/1998/Issues/01/Hobb.html Locus magazine interview, january 1998</ref></poem>

* http:<references//suvudu.com/2010/06/25-years-of-spectra-assassins-apprentice-1995-by-robin-hobb.html> {{Elderlings}}* http://www.locusmag.com/1998/Issues/01/Hobb.html